Mail receiving and delivering apparatus.



No. 635,854. Patented Oct. 3|, I899.

A. L. HENRY.

MAIL RECEIVING AND DELIVERING APPARATUS.

(Application filed Sept. 11, 1899.)

(No Model.)

WITNESSES d Jya :mms PETERS co. vuorouma, wnsumsmn, n. cy

NITED STATES :ATENT FFICE.

ANDREW L. HENRY, OF LADOGA, INDIANA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 635,854, dated October 31, 1899.

Application filed September 11, 1899. Serial No. 730,139. (No model.)

time of the mail-carriers is consumed in dismounting from and re mounting to the vehicles used by them in performing their work of delivering to and collecting from the mail-boxes along their routes. In inclement weather also the exposure thus incurred is destructive to comfort and dangerous to health.

The object of my invention is to provide a means whereby the collection and delivery may be so manipulated as to render dismounting on the part of the carrier unnecessary,

and its essential characteristic consists in an arrangement of the mail-box by which it shall be maintained in proper position when at rest, but which admits of its movement .to such a degree as enables its convenient handling from the vehicles by the carrier without dismounting.

The accompanying drawing, which is made a part hereof and on which similar reference characters indicate similar parts, is an elevation of such an apparatus as it appears in use, as when mail is being taken from and delivered thereto by a mail-carrier in a vehicle. The position when the apparatus is at rest is shown by dotted lines.

I have shown the box 1 attached to one end of a chain 2, which chain passes through a perforation in a'post 3 and is provided with a counterweight 4: upon the opposite end. The mailcarrier in using a box of this kind may have a handle 5, adapted to hook into a ring on the box or into a link of the chain near the box, by which he may draw said box before him. The weight 4 is sufficiently heavy, so that when the apparatus is released it returns to and remains in the position indicated by the dotted lines, with the box on one side of the post near the top and the weight on the other sidenearthebottom. Thepostandchainand box may be made of any required strength, so as that it shall be secure from removal, and the structures may be positioned in convenient localities at the points where mail is to be delivered and collected, so that the mailcarrier can drive close to them and receive and deliver mail conveniently and quickly, as will be readily understood.

By the use of this invention much time is saved, so that one carrier can do more work, thus making it possible to lengthen the routes and, by reducing the total number of carriers, lessen the expense of covering any given amount of territory. The handling of mail is also done in the wagon under cover, so that it is never exposed to rain or snow.

It is obvious that many changes may b made in the construction and arrangement of this apparatus without departing from my invention, the essential characteristics being, as above stated,without regard to constructive details, and I desire to be understood as claiming the apparatus broadly.

Having thus fully described my said invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A mail receiving and delivering apparatus consisting of a suitable support, a mail-box yieldingly mounted on such a support where by it is capable of being moved toward a carrier for the purpose of receiving and deliver ing mail, and means whereby it is returned to position when released, substantially a and for the purposes set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, at Indianapolis, Indiana, this 9th day of September, A. D. 1899.

. ANDREW L. HENRY. [L. s.]

Witnesses:

CHESTER BRADFORD, JAMES A. WALSH. 

